Royal BAM Group Adopts Forge-Based Cloud Solution Platform to Support Modular Construction Strategy

Every building is unique. Each one has its own individual shape, appearance, and materials. Despite common and repetitive features such as windows and doors, designing a building remains a 'one-of-a-kind' process. Furthermore, clients are demanding better, more sustainable and more flexible buildings, build in less time, for less money, with a minimum total cost of ownership. Taking all these requirements and challenges into account, designers and engineers have to look at how all the different components fit and function together. This means they would need to have extensive knowledge of all the buildings components and systems and it requires a lot of engineering time. With the lack of lack of a standardised process, this makes it difficult to coordinate and manage, and to learn and improve across projects. Consequently, the design and engineering process is time, resource and risk sensitive and prone to errors. To structurise the design and engineering process, capture product and system intelligence in a digital environment, and optimise engineering time, BAM adopted a modular construction strategy. The first step towards a modular construction strategy and a structurised process is making use of modular products, or elements. These interchangeable building blocks can be combined in various ways while maintaining overall form, fit and function. In cars, for example, you can replace one type of engine with another, while the car still looks and functions the same. The advantage of modular elements is that you can create countless variations to fit specific needs, whilst cutting down on engineering time (up to 75%) and providing verification that the element can indeed be manufactured. During this session, Jaco Prins (Royal BAM Group) and Desmond Laeyendecker (Cadac Group) will discuss the challenges that were encountered and processes that were defined and analysed, present the software solution based on real-life BAM projects, and provide the improvement metrics and KPIs.